KQED's Forum

Residents of the small Northern California town of Willows suffered from smoke-filled air four out of twelve months in 2020. That makes it the smokiest place in the Western United States. That’s according to a recent analysis by NPR’s California Newsroom that looked at air quality across the state--and the country--between 2016 and 2020. We’ll hear about the investigation and catch up on the newest science on how smoke affects health. Then at 10:40, we’ll dive deep in on how to read and interpret air quality maps, and which ones are best.

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Airports are often the first, last, and sometimes only impression a traveler has of a city. Singapore's Changi airport dazzles; Newark Airport in New Jersey offers less delight. SFO leads the way in design with its newly opened Harvey Milk Terminal which boasts Heath tiles in the restrooms, lighting that makes you look less tired, and improved acoustic design. But the airport industry has been challenged by the pandemic, which dropped traveller numbers and put new stresses on airports already grappling with issues like aging infrastructure. We'll talk about airports you love, airports you never want to see again, and hear from experts about airports of the future.

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The new film “The Many Saints of Newark” brings Sopranos fans a prequel to the revered HBO series about mobsters in New Jersey. Director Alan Taylor, who won an Emmy for his work on the show, joins us to talk about the movie set during Tony Soprano’s adolescence against a backdrop of the 1967 Newark race riots. The series, which ran for six seasons between 1999 and 2007 followed the story of Tony Soprano, a mafia boss who sought help for anxiety and mental health issues. We discuss the new film, which comes out Friday in theaters and on HBO, and the legacy of “The Sopranos.”

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A federal lawsuit from Texas is challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act, the landmark 1978 law designed to keep Native American children within Native American families in state child custody proceedings. The case, Brackeen v. Haaland, is the subject of the second season of the award-winning podcast “This Land” which explores the threats the case poses to the legal structure that defends Native American rights. We’ll talk with writer, activist and “This Land” host Rebecca Nagle about the political interests driving the court challenge and the children and families affected.

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The last time Congress re-negotiated who is eligible for asylum in the United States, it came in the aftermath of the fall of Saigon, when an influx of southeast Asian refugees forced changes to how Americans provided sanctuary. Now, as Afghan refugees continue to arrive after the fall of Kabul and amidst the continuing stream of people fleeing violence in the Americas, could this be a moment when our system changes again? And if so, how might we create a better system? In the final show of our series on asylum we talk about how to build a better system for providing humanitarian relief at our borders and inside our country.

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Forum Book Club returns with "How Much of These Hills Is Gold," the debut novel from C. Pam Zhang. Longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize, the book has been praised for its "arresting," "lyrical," and "ravishingly written" style. It follows the quest of two Chinese-American orphans, Sam and Lucy, to bury their father, a failed gold prospector. In this tender coming-of-age story, Zhang asks "what makes a home a home?" and in placing a Chinese family at its center, a group that history has not just forgotten, but in some instances, erased, the novel reshapes the American western. We'll talk to Zhang and a panel of fellow writers about the book.

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In the latest installment of Forum's series on asylum seeking in the U.S., we'll take a look at what challenges Central American refugee communities in the Bay Area face. Many struggle to have their cases and stories heard. We'll also check in on the Central American Minors initiative allowing Central American migrant children to enter the country legally, which the Biden administration revived earlier this month. Community advocates Esmeralda Mendoza of East Bay Sanctuary Covenant and Vanessa Velasco of CARECEN SF join us.

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Marin County officials are considering desalination plants to help weather a drought that is expected to deplete water resources as early as next summer. Newark has desalinated brackish water from the groundwater basin beneath Alameda Creek since 2003. And Antioch is launching its own desalination project. But critics say the environmental and economic costs of the technology are too high. We’ll hear which Bay Area counties are looking to desalination for drought mitigation and discuss the pros and cons of the technology.

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Pfizer and BioNTech announced Tuesday that they submitted data to the FDA showing that their COVID vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 -11 We'll talk about when we can expect the agency to act -- and best practices for parents of young kids in the meantime -- with Paul Offit, a pediatrician and member of the FDA Covid Vaccine Advisory Panel. We'll also talk to Offit about his new book "You Bet Your Life," a history of medical innovations from the earliest antibiotics to the first blood transfusions, and the profound risks that accompanied them.

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The Bay Area has been home to a vibrant Afghan community for decades. California lawmakers have been showing unified support in welcoming Afghan asylum seekers to the Bay Area, proposing legislation and holding a string of town halls in support of resettlement efforts. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, KQED reports that local service provider Jewish Family & Community Services resettled 77 Afghans in the East Bay -- which is typically the number of people they resettle over six months. But a warm welcome doesn't solve a major issue at hand: the Bay Area's and California's housing affordability crisis. We'll speak with Harris Mojadedi, a local community organizer and member of the Afghan Coalition, about the status of resettlement efforts here in the Bay Area and what Bay Area residents can do to help.

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